Mother Blackheart with Solo as a yearling - 5-17-05Bearstudy.org and Bear.org are finally free of the hackers. They weren’t targeting us. They found a way to get into the main server of our host and hack the websites housed on the server, including ours. The webmaster worked through several nights, found how they were getting in, and shut them out. All is well. We don’t store credit card information there, so no harm there.
Yesterday, Lucky got up from his bed in the bunker den and looked out the door. Holly moved to Lucky’s empty bed. Did Lucky tell her to move back to where she is supposed to be? No. He busied himself raking through the straw as if looking for something and then settled down where she had been—a peaceful trade of beds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abA6VYrV7uU
Lily Fans are asking about an article in the news. The DNR has turned on Peggy Callahan of the Wildlife Science Center much as they have turned on us. I don’t know the back story. In the newspaper story about it, Peggy mentions working on DNR wildlife projects from time to time. We are familiar with that. She and her WSC team were the people the DNR sent to capture and remove Solo and her two cubs in a pre-dawn raid on January 14, 2008 after the local community here had become very vocal against the DNR’s decision to kill Solo. As a result of the public outcry to save Solo, Governor Pawlenty announced that Solo would not be killed. Unfortunately, she did die as a result of the action, and her two cubs were placed in captivity. This was after the DNR had egg on its face for falsifying complaints from this community and urging the community to come to consensus to end our research and kill Solo. Instead, the community leaders organized a broad-based committee which met repeatedly throughout the fall. The committee came to consensus in support of our research and refused to follow DNR recommendations to kill Solo. After the governor stepped in and said Solo would not be killed, the DNR ignored this community, the document the Town Council passed unanimously in support of our research and our radio-collared bear Solo and her cubs. They sent Peggy Callahan and her team to carry out the DNR plan as is described at http://www.bearstudy.org/website/updates/yearly-updates.html. The updates there for January 2008 and February 2008 give details and contain links to a video of the operation and a video of Solo’s life. In the video of the operation, you can even hear the tree fall when it was cut down to capture Solo’s terrified cubs. Peggy Callahan showed strong loyalty to the DNR in carrying out this deed for them. Now, the DNR has turned on her as they have turned on us. What is the latest on Solo and her cubs? Solo, or course, died as a result of the operation, as I mentioned earlier. I recently heard that Solo’s cubs Erin and Megan are no longer at the facility where they were taken, so their fate is unknown. Will the DNR also take the animals held at the Wildlife Science Center as they took Solo and her cubs and the animals being well cared for at the Dark Star Rehab Center?
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center